Military Family Advisory Committee

Military Family Advisory Committee.

Meet our volunteers

Chairperson
CWO (Ret'd) Troy Zuorro

Chairperson CWO (Ret'd) Troy Zuorro

The military lifestyle is quite familiar for Troy as he was born into a military family. As a child he lived in several provinces but more importantly, he learned about the importance of loved ones, the value of community, and the resiliency of military families. After completing high school he moved to Baden-Baden Germany with his family but after a few short months he enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces as a technician in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Troy served for 33 1/2 years and had multiple deployments throughout his career. Most recently he was privileged to serve as the Chief Warrant Officer of Air Task Force – Iraq on Operation IMPACT from October 2016 to June 2017. Troy retired in August of 2019 from Trenton, Ontario where he served as the Wing Chief Warrant Officer which is the most senior non-commissioned position on the Wing.

Troy is married to June Zuorro, who is also a retired RCAF member. June was a Finance Officer and when she retired in September 2019, she was serving as the Director General Budget where she managed the entire budget for the Canadian Armed Forces. June deployed several times throughout her career and she and Troy were blessed with two wonderful children, who are now grown.

Troy’s experience as a military child, a spouse of a service member and as a Canadian Armed Forces member gives him a unique perspective. Throughout his career he volunteered with several community organizations, including as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Winnipeg Military Family Resource Center. Troy has a passion for programs and services that support, empower and acknowledge military families. In April 2020 Troy began volunteering on the Military Family Advisory Committee for Together We Stand Foundation.

Maryanne McGrath

Maryanne McGrath is an emerging professional in Edmonton, Alberta. When she’s not engaged in policy and governance work in the education sector, or out on a cruise with her car club, she’s involved in the administration of the Royal Canadian Air Cadet program through her role as a Cadet Instructors Cadre Officer. Her enthusiasm and dedication to bettering the lives of military families, particularly young military families, began with her experiences in her own military relationship with her Armoured Soldier partner. Maryanne hopes to use her own growth and learning in navigating military family life to empower others and represent the voices of the next generation of Canadian Military Families.

Gaynor Jackson

Gaynor spent 28 years of her professional career working with the Esquimalt Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC), initially as a social worker and then as Executive Director.

She is grateful for the opportunities provided over the years to work with the amazing CAF community in efforts to enhance the quality of life for military families.

Newly retired, she is thrilled to be able to continue her passion for the military community and families by volunteering with Together We Stand.

LCol (ret’d)
Janin Blanchet

LCol (ret’d) Janin Blanchet

Janin Blanchet join the Canadian Armed Forces in 1991. He graduated from the Royal Military College in Kingston in 1996. He obtained his wings on helicopters in Dec 1997. Following graduation from flight school, he was posted to 430 Squadron in Valcartier, Qc. where he had the opportunity to participate in numerous domestic operations and three deployments to Bosnia.

In 2003, he was posted to 403 Squadron in Gagetown, NB where he became a flight instructor on the CH146 Griffon helicopter. He later became in charge of developing, implementing and supervising the flight simulator recurrency training for all CH-146 pilots in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He became an expert in his field and participated to the formation of many flight instructors at the CH-146 Operational Training Unit (OTU).

Promoted to the rank of Major in 2007, he was posted to the National Defense Headquarters (NDHQ) in the Air Staff in the Directorate of Air Strategic Plans where he became the Tactical Helicopter Line of Operation Manager within the Air Force Campaign Plan, overlooking Air Force development initiatives and efforts and providing advice to senior leaders on rotary wing related issues.

In 2011, he was appointed Chief Helicopter Instructor at 3 Canadian Forces Flight Training School (3CFFTS), Portage-La-Prairie, MB where he had the pleasure of leading the RCAF helicopter pilot production. Being offered a promotion and a posting to Ottawa in 2014, Major Blanchet kindly declined and enjoyed life as a stay-at-home dad, supporting wife and kids for a short while. In 2016, he joined the ranks of the Reserve Force and completed the Joint Command and Staff Program. In 2018, he started working for SkyAlyne as a military aviation training consultant and continues to do so to this day. Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he is also working in NDHQ, coordinating the RCAF Cyber Mission Assurance Program.

LCol Blanchet is a graduate of RMC in Computer Engineering, the Land Forces Command and Staff College and the Joint Command and Staff College. His involvement with TWS Foundation started with an interview for The-Command-Post, where he discussed his experience as a dad while his wife was away in Kuwait for seven months. He believes that sharing uncommon stories like his will help others who are equally faced with difficult work-life challenges.

CWO
Renee Hansen

CWO Renee Hansen

The first time Renee wore a pair of military parade boots, she was 11 years old and had joined the cadet program. She completed the cadet program on her 18th birthday and joined the primary reserves.

In 2001, Renee made the decision to transfer from the primary reserve force into the regular force as an administration clerk.

Renee is currently serving as the Squadron Chief Warrant Officer of 426 (Transport) Training Squadron located at 8 Wing Trenton, the home of the Royal Canadian Air Forces air mobility capability.

Throughout her 19 year regular force career, Renee has deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to our Nation’s most northern inhabited place, Canadian Forces Station Alert.

Renee is married to Steve, who recently retired after a 39 year career in uniform.

Renee’s 36 years wearing a uniform has given her unique opportunities to garner and understand of what it is to serve, as well as what it is to support those who serve.

In 2020, Renee began volunteering with the Military Family Advisory Committee for Together We Stand Foundation.

Sarah Rozema-Seaton

Sarah is a passionate individual who has worked in the advertising and marketing industry in Australia and Canada for over 20 years; which has given her a broad skill set in branding, marketing, major fundraisers, integrative advertising campaigns, public relations and digital media. She enjoys working in collaboration to develop original, imaginative and creative solutions.

Starting her own company in 2015, she was striving to create a successful remotely operated company that fits with military transitions. Recently, she is a part of a pilot program in Ontario researching entrepreneur programs for remote and transitional employment for military spouse and releasing military members.

She is passionate about strong military families and her past achievements include working alongside the CF Support Unit (Ottawa), where she and her team opened three emergency housing units in the Ottawa for the use in crisis, medical and imposed restriction purposes. Other initiatives include increasing mental health support programs for youth and personal development for adults in the military community.

In 2017 she was approached to assist Together We Stand. Within this organization she saw passionate individuals driven to form diverse new programs such as operation care package and Military family appreciation day in support of military families. She is honoured to be involved in the continuation and development of these programs.

Sarah has been a spouse of a Canadian Armed Air Force Officer for almost 20 years. Her husband has served 7 deployments, 2 years of imposed restrictions and their family has been relocated 7 times. She and her husband have 3 children are current located in Ontario.

2015 – EDC Top Women in Defence Award 2012 – Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal for service for support programs for out of county CAF families

Eleanor Millar

Eleanor is passionate about politics and has been involved with every aspect as both a volunteer in election campaigns for over twenty years as well as a political staffer working in Ottawa for Cabinet Ministers on Parliament Hill. She honed her research and communication skills and accompanied her Ministers on travel throughout Central and South America where it was an honour to represent Canada.

After leaving Parliament Hill, she joined an organization called CJPAC (the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee). As their Director of Campus Programming she was responsible for their flagship program – The Fellowship. Her focus was on training the next generation of political junkies and imparting her love for and knowledge about politics aimed at engaging students in the political process. She used her creativity and organizational skills to plan major conferences each year in Ottawa involving dozens of speakers over multiple days.

Looking for fresh challenges she joined Phaze 3 Management Inc in 2019 continuing her work with politics from a new perspective. She also started volunteering with Together We Stand Foundation. Bringing her experience in government and organization to Together We Stand she has helped with programs such as Operation Care Package and participated in The Command Post. She was an enthusiastic part of the second annual Military Family Appreciation Day and wants to continue working to develop these and other programs helping to support and honour military families across Canada.

She has been part of a military family for almost 20 years. Her husband, combat infantry Warrant Officer and trained paratrooper who has been deployed 4 times. They spent a long time apart pursuing their separate careers before coming together in Edmonton and then being posted back to Ontario. They have an energetic five year old son and an appropriately named cat, Remington.

Suzie Fortin

Suzie Fortin was born and raised in Saguenay, QC and she always wanted to explore the world and learn English. At 17 years old she joined the Naval Reserve as a Naval Communicator. She went to Victoria,BC in 1999 and Halifax, NS in 2000 to complete her training ashore and on ships.

Suzie attended University Laval where she completed her Engineering degree and MBA. She decided to do one last class B contract with the reserve after she graduated in 2004 and she just so happened to meet her husband Chris that summer. He followed her to Quebec City and then she had to go back to Saguenay to work in her field. In 2006, Suzie got a job in Gatineau and moved with Chris in Ottawa after they got married and Chris transferred to the Regular Forces.

Suzie followed Chris literally Coast to coast: Victoria 2007, Ottawa 2013, Montreal 2016, Toronto 2017, Halifax 2018 and back in Ottawa in 2020. Suzie has been a public servant since 2007 when she worked as the Material Engineer at CFB Esquimalt.

Suzie and Chris have two very resilient boys born in 2008 and 2011. Suzie held the home front when Chris was at sea or when he deployed. The two longest were a 8.5 months Navy deployment in 2013 and a 6.5 months in Kuwait in 2016.

Suzie works currently is the Engineering Manager and has been with the Canadian Coast Guard since 2016 as they enabled her to work remotely for the Headquarters in Ottawa for the last 3 postings.

Suzie has a unique experience as a reservist, a spouse, a mother and also a public servant for 3 Departments and is a proud first language French speaker. She wants to give back to the military families. She is so thankful for Together we Stand and everything they do and wants to raise awareness about the foundation to all military families but more specifically to the francophones.

donate today.

Donate today to help TWS continue growing Operation Care Package, Operation Military Family Appreciation Day, and other various initiatives aimed at celebrating and supporting our brave military families.